The saddle is quite high in this photo. I took this one when I went to go buy him. He has a different saddle now that seems to fit him much better.
He was trained as a pacer, but I have never seen him pace in the paddock or anything. He does have a beautiful, long strided trot though.
He looks much better now then he did when I brought him home though.
Check it out...

Can you really judge a horse's jumping potential by just conformation photos??

Confo pictures are great, but you need to either see him moving about in person or a video of him doing flatwork and some jumping as well.

BUT you can extrapolate by his conformation what he would be good at, how far you can take him I.e if he's GP material or pleasure horse only, Conformation is ALL, heart is second. That is why there are horses that excel in certain arena's, dressage, jumping, eventing, racing. I mean seriously, have you ever seen them toss in a swaybacked knock knee'd, sickle hocked too over at the knee TB in with the rest of those beauties? No lol, because he won't make it his conformation will not allow it, his bones ligaments etc.. don't move the same way as a well conformed horse.

A horse that has bad conformation, WILL have ALOT of issues if he's being pushed to do something his build just wont allow.

He could be an awesome jumper.. Standies are actually known for being pretty good jumpers!
I ride a boy who is 22 and standardbred as well.. I think he could easily clear an 80cm course.. I don't jump that high though! I've been told by a few people that he has a nice jump. He has FAR from perfect conformation.

It really depends on the horse :) I would clear with the vet that he would be sound enough to jump, as his hocks do look a bit exaggerated.

I disagree with the above post. This horse has really odd hocks which will greatly affect his scope over fences and will be predisposed to lameness. He will likely be fine for small fences but is not likely to have the strength for big stuff. Pleasure riding is a performance discipline too though so don't be too upset.

Personally I wouldn't buy a horse with hocks like his but I am a jumping rider and currently train to 3' with goals to increase that height as soon as I have the right saddle for it.

Thank you everyone for the replies. I will not take the risk in jumping him if most people here believe it would not be in his best interest. Maybe small jumps every now and then when he gets older, but that would just be for fun.

I watched the vid of him trotting, and he looks "disconnected" his back end isn't "in tune" with his front end. He is ewe necked, and needs some serious muscling.

Nobody said you can't jump him, do some dressage with him first, get him to "connect" and "collect" himself, you can do lower lvl jumping without hurting him, I think BEP was thinking that you intented to try and take him to higher lvls. First and foremost enjoy him, he's a pretty boy

No. Only by a video of the horse going over fences. If I posted pictures of my horses asking if they have jumping potential I don't think I would get particularly great answers, but they both school 3-4ft courses.

What a sweet guy! He looks like he has found himself a lovely home to live in and as you said, he's been bought as a companion so what he can and can't do isn't defined by the love and fun you can have with him all the same.

Like everyone else, I see the odd hocks and have to wonder if he could handle a lot of jumping. He's young and definitely needs some building up, but like Maura said, he should be able to pop over little jumps in moderation happily.

I have to politely disagree with Maura over the statement she made on what sports suit Standardbreds the most however. Perhaps I'm biased, because I have been in the NZ Standardbred scene for over 7yrs now and seen a lot of different types and sizes/shapes of Standardbreds that excel in sports more than carriage/cart pulling. Most horses were specifically bred for farm work or pulling carriages and now excel in ridden pursuits, through breeding and evolution - as Standardbreds have also gone through in the recent years. Whilst they do have conformation faults (like any breed), they can do well in many things, showing, dressage, jumping, eventing and endurance just to name a few. With some exceptions, no Standardbreds will not be able to compete at high competition levels, though can happily take a rider down any path that their willingness and ability allows. I've seen quite a few Standies take out a few well bred hacks, park hacks and even a hunter or two at shows in recent years, even going supreme champion at some well known shows.

I would say not to worry about jumping for now, and work on building his muscles... with such a long back you'll have to work on connecting his back end in with his front... in my experience with Standardbreds, the longer backed horses can run at different tempos front and back. It's not something hard to accomplish, sometimes they just need to be reminded that they're one big horse, and require more leg or a light tap with a dressage whip to get their back end working properly. My gelding was quite long backed, though thankfully was well balanced and didn't disunite. A friend had a similar built horse and he would disunite.. a tap with a dressage whip would help him bring his hind under himself and work at the same tempo. I would suggest also, because he will still be growing into his body to take his training slowly... with being so long, he will need to build his back muscles especially for riding work, and slow and steady will help him immensely.

But to repeat, you did say this sweet man was to be a companion first and foremost. I'm sure you'll get a great bond together where you'll be able to tell what he enjoys and what he doesn't XD.

Wonderful advice yet again! He does need some serious muscle gain. Im worried about riding him though until he gets some muscles and fat on his back. Right now his back is pretty boney and I would think a saddle would bother him. I have been doing a little lunging with him and hand walking (lunging mostly at a walk). I'm worried about doing too much work with him as I'd like him to get some more weight on.
I expect it will take until April or May next year before he will be ready for any type of hard work.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Horse Forum forums, you must first register.

Already have a Horse Forum account?
Members are allowed only one account per person at the Horse Forum, so if you've made an account here in the past you'll need to continue using that account. Please do not create a new account or you may lose access to the Horse Forum. If you need help recovering your existing account, please Contact Us. We'll be glad to help!

New to the Horse Forum?Please choose a username you will be satisfied with using for the duration of your membership at the Horse Forum. We do not change members' usernames upon request because that would make it difficult for everyone to keep track of who is who on the forum. For that reason, please do not incorporate your horse's name into your username so that you are not stuck with a username related to a horse you may no longer have some day, or use any other username you may no longer identify with or care for in the future.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Old Thread Warning

This thread is more than 90 days old. When a thread is this old, it is often better to start a new thread rather than post to it. However, If you feel you have something of value to add to this particular thread, you can do so by checking the box below before submitting your post.I am aware that this is an old thread and I want to revive it rather than starting a new thread.